Monday, June 20, 2005

Where do we go from here?

It is not only the EU that needs to define its future development, we do, on this blog, as well. The immediate purpose of it was to discuss matters to do with the forthcoming referendum on the European Constitution.

As we have pointed out before, specifically, in our manifesto, we have never seen the issue as separate from others: individual freedom on the one hand and liberal democracy on the other.

Winning the referendum, we said, would be the first battle of a long war, that will have to include a redefinition of Britain's position in the world and a restructuring of her internal governance. Therefore, all these matters have to be discussed when they are linked to the European Union and Britain's membership.

It appears that the first battle will not be fought for some time to come, if at all. We need to reorient ourselves. The larger war is still there and we shall continued to fight it.

To this end, we intend to keep the title of the blog (after all, it has become well known in this country and elsewhere). But it, too, is being refocused. We no longer speak of a referendum on the Constitution, unless the idea is brought back into our political life. What we would like to see is a referendum on Britain’s relationship with other European countries.

Consequently, we shall be changing the strapline, to make it clear what is at the heart of our discussion. The new strapline will read: To discuss issues related to the UK's position in Europe and the world.

We have no doubt that the newly adjusted blog and its postings will continue to have a lively debate on its comments section.